this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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  • The author canceled their Amazon Prime subscription on a whim and realized they didn't really need it.
  • Leaving Prime meant slower shipping but the author was happy to wait and still found the selection and delivery speed satisfactory.
  • Many people love Prime for its fast shipping and convenience, but some readers expressed ambivalence and considered canceling.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/3M27c

(page 3) 50 comments
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The shipping time never bothered me. If I need something urgent I’ll go to the store and get it. Otherwise a week or 2 won’t make a difference.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I deleted my Prime! So many good points on this post. My last 2 purchase from Amazon took 2 weeks to get here, which is fine but prime is advertised as 2 days. Amazon prime’s TV selection is for the most part trash & finally Amazon can burn in hell. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to cancel it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (8 children)

Is it really 140 USD annually in US? Here in EU it's about equivalent of 12 dollars yearly... What is that?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

It’s called regulatory capture. They have a monopoly here, so they can just raise their prices until the pain threshold starts diminishing their returns noticeably then dial it back a notch.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I haven't used prime in idk how long. 2 day shipping hasn't been 2 days or even 4 days in years now. Every order with or without prime is at least a week. The only reason I use Amazon is ordering odd ball stuff you can't find in a store or the price difference is substantial enough to justify. I never need to pay for shipping since if I'm ordering it's a bulk order of stuff I need and it's free shipping over $25. I hate Amazon but i also gotta get by some how

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

As someone who lives in a country where there's no amazon...

yes.

you can live without amazon subscription and you dont have to pay them a single dime

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I buy from Bezoco maybe once or twice a year, if I really can't find something anywhere else, and they always, always offer a free Prime trial.

If you don't know this already: you can cancel the Prime trial immediately and still get the full 30 days (or week or whatever) out of it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I’m certain I could easily live without it. But I don’t need to. Who in their right mind thinks they can’t live without it?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I live in an area where lots of stuff can get there same day or overnight which has legitimately saved my ass a bunch of times. If it was just 2 day I would definitely consider cancelling, especially now that prime video has ads.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

same. i feel gross using it but it's literally figuratively magic being able to lie in bed, realize i need a specific cable for something, order it on my phone, and have it the next morning

sometimes i'll try to go to an actual store instead, but then often they won't have the specific thing, or it'll be out of stock, or they'll only have expensive ones, and either way i have to drive there and back and talk to the guy which is a pain

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I've cancelled several years ago because I rarely buy anything online outside of games so it's just not worth it (also Prime Video's selection sucks ass)

The bastards still try to charge me about 4 times a year and I have to do a charge back with my bank.

Also if I ever have to actually buy something through amazon, even if I specifically tell the fuckers not to add prime to my account, they do it anyway.

Fuck Amazon.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

There's only 24 hours in a day and I have plenty of things to do other than watch commercial-plagued programming on Amazon.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Imagine being subscribed to a shop. Wtf?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

No shit that it's easy to live with marginally slower (but still really pretty fast) shipping and access to a second-tier streaming service.

It's pretty much the definition of a luxury purchase.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I’ve never had one. I’ve never bought anything from Amazon.

I’m fine.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Amazon moved a distribution center near me and now I basically get what prime delivery used to get me without prime. I can still get free shipping so long as my cart total is high enough, and I think that will remain because even independent retail websites and shippers offer that, so Amazon doesn't want to give people more reason to use them less. Getting rid of prime was easier than soooooo much other stuff I've ditched.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think it actually costs Amazon money to have separate shipping plans for prime and non-prime, and artifically holding goods later costs warehouse space. I suspect the dirty secret is that prime is no different to normal shipping now.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Prime Video was nice, but I don't like the move with including ads. Since they fucked me over as a linux user by using dumb DRM, I don't really miss it.

Shipping: same as the author. I will likely get used to increased wait time. Shipping was never my main use case.

I will miss my free monthly twitch subscription. So I will likely not support my favorite streamer anymore (via twitch sub at least).

I'll see how it goes. But fuck the industry for their ad-ridden shit tour. I will rip any service out of my life that tries that bullshit.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

A lot of companies now offer two day shipping for free (if you spend enough of course), and it’s just as good. Hell, I bought some batteries for a UPS that died on Monday from a battery wholesale site, and they arrived today. And that’s with the shipping saying it could be at least a week. The competitive advantage of Amazon doesn’t seem like it’s there any more.

Another thing you realize when you quit Amazon is that you don’t really need to be ordering so much junk. You just don’t. I promise. And when you do need something, I feel like I’m more confident buying the jacket or whatever from the company that makes it instead of sitting through a thousand knock offs and hoping I picked the right one among all the AI written reviews and titles.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (11 children)

My family holds a prime membership and recently I've been seeing how long I could go for without needing to use it. Most things I was able to purchase on eBay. Most recently, I decided to buy pen stuff and JetPens was a good option. However they needed like $50 or something for free shipping so I splurged a little. The one pen ink refill I needed (Jetstream Prime SXR 600 0.5) was way too expensive on both jetpens and ebay so I had to purchase it on Amazon. Nonetheless, I think you can still buy on amazon without a membership so maybe deal with the longer shipping times but that's no biggie.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

I don't have access to amazon at all, ao don't get the rave about amazon itself either.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Amazon Prime exists for me to run a 30-day trial around Christmas, when I happen to come up with a few gift ideas I can't find elsewhere, and then to let it expire and never use it the rest of the year.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (4 children)

One of the final nails in the coffin for me was when I tried to specify the delivery date to a day I would actually be in, and they completely ignored the instruction and delivered immediately. Like, I pay for that option, and you're not delivering the service.

I've also been getting free trials for Prime every so often, so I still get the benefits when I might need them (eg before Christmas). They did make it very hard to cancel, though, half the links didn't work and the instructions were out of date and didn't match the pages.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I get Prime for free as part of a subscription I have to something else. Otherwise I would be hard pressed to subscribe. It has driven up our impulse purchase amounts, though. My eldest daughter got hooked on that shit for half a year. She needed literal detox in a clinic hahaha j/k

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I just bought new name brand tires from Amazon for $200 cheaper per tire than my local tire shop was selling them, and about 80 cheaper than other online stores that I checked. Plus free shipping.

Hate Amazon or not, they do still have good deals and free shipping for certain items is huge. Plus they ALWAYS have better selection than any local or big box store.

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